Published at 27th of April 2021 9:34 am

Chapter 182.2: Rio Vs Hiroaki Ⅱ

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

It’s a remote controlled type ranged attack huh. Rather similar to spirit arts.

The weak point of a remote controlled attack of spirit arts was the fact that the difficulties of controlling the attack increased when the user moved around. An amateur couldn’t even move when they were using this kind of attack.

「Behold, this BIG WAVE! But then, you might die if you get careless and touch it you know? 」

Hiroaki was controlling the water dragon from a safe distance to swallow Rio. But he didn’t make those five water dragons attack Rio at once any more, he made them attack in succession to prevent a collision from occurring like before.

But, Rio was moving around gracefully, dodging wave after wave of attacks with ease. So instead of being worried, the spectators were cheering when they saw Rio’s extremely thrilling acrobatic-like performance. On the other hand――,

The scale of the phenomenon is way too big, this isn’t the kind of skill you use against a human opponent. It’s movements are also way too linier without any bend or twist, which makes it too predictable. If this is all he can do, creating a tsunami right from the front is still a better choice.

Even as he dodged, Rio continued to evaluate Hiroaki’s attack. Each of the attacks were showy and packed with a threatening amount of power indeed, but that was all there was to it. Hiroaki might be able to raise the attack speed to another level, but that wasn’t a threat if he couldn’t control it like his own limbs.

「CEH! What a nimble guy. Oi, got a problem with this scale of attack?! But, don’t tell me that all you can do is dodge? I don’t mind forgiving you if you accept your defeat and apologize for your previous remark you know? 」

Hiroaki clicked his tongue when he saw how easily Rio was dodging his attacks, then advised Rio to surrender with a sneer on his face. But――、

「…………」

Rio’s complexion didn’t even change as he continued to dodge Hiroaki’s attacks in silence. Rio was probing Hiroaki as to whether he still had an ace-in-the-hole and to let Hiroaki use all of his hidden cards. Thus, Hiroaki’s one-sided attack continued on for a while.

But as time passed, Rio dodged each of Hiroaki’s attacks without leaving any gap for a counterattack. He had memorized Hiroaki’s attack pattern. He knew very well what kind of atack Hiroaki was going to use next.

It seems that he doesn’t have any other hidden cards. So this is all he’s got huh. I didn’t even need to be so vigilant against him.

Rio concluded that Hiroaki had shown his full power. Thus he decided to end the boring match right away.

Damn it! WHY WON’T IT HIT THAT BASTA~~~RD! ? Could it be that I need more than five?

Hiroaki was controlling the water dragon with a vexed expression. Though he imagined that his opponent would be frantic and would just be running around to dodge his attacks, Rio continued to dodge Hiroaki’s attacks with ease. At first he expected that dodging was all Rio could do, but he got a little anxious seeing Rio’s composed face.

But, he was too late. He found Rio throwing a glance at him while he dodged Hiroaki’s attack.

「!!!!! ? 」

Hiroaki’s body trembled when his line of sight met Rio’s. At the same time, Rio ran towards Hiroaki, who controlled his water dragon in a panic to intercept the incoming attack.

Thus, three of the five heads did a turn and came at Rio from the front. Three water dragons collided with Rio, dispersing vast amounts of water upon collision.

「DID IT HIT HIM! ? 」

Hiroaki shouted with a delighted voice. Though it wasn’t the kind of line that he would say in a normal situation as it would raise a losing flag, he unintentionally said those words in the heat of the moment.

The spectators were in awe as they saw the terrifying shockwave caused by the collision. But, the next moment――

「……!!!」

Hiroaki gasped in terror. He noticed an arm stretched from behind followed by the blade of a sword touching his throat. Naturally the owner of that sword was none other than Rio.

「Large scale attacks like that will give birth to many blind spots to be used by your opponent. You should consider those kinds of situations in a battle you see. Just when I expected some sort of trap, it seems that I ended up overestimating you seeing you have way too many openings for a counterattack. 」

Rio coldly spoke to Hiroaki.

「Guh…. 」

Hiroaki was completely at a loss for words. No matter how he thought, he was completely defeated. But, his heart refused to accept that fact. Thus, his heart was filled with incomprehensible anger and vexation. Though he couldn’t help but want to rage, the blade that was pushed against his throat wouldn’t allow any excuse.

Hiroaki was utterly defeated. The referee, Alfred who saw that coming was about to raise his hand andt to announce Rio’s victory, but then――,

「KYAAAAA! ? 」

「IT’S COMING THIS WAY! ? 」

The spectators were suddenly screaming in panic. Amongst the five water columns controlled by Hiroaki, he lost control of the last two which then caused them to fall towards where the spectators were gathered.

「Hero-sama, please control those water columns, NOW. 」

Rio spoke to Hiroaki, the original creator of the water column as soon as he realized something went wrong with those water column, and yet――,

「……. EH? 」

Maybe because Hiroaki didn’t lend an ear to Rio, his reaction was dull. He was just looking down at the ground as he tightly grasped his fists. That moment, Rio gave up on relying on Hiroaki. Now, he was even beginning to regret wasting his time to ask for his help.

「!!!!! 」

Rio sheathed his sword and kicked the ground as hard as he could. Naturally he was heading towards where Celia was at. He invoked wind spirit arts and instantly accelerated at his fastest speed.

Rio’s speed was far greater than the falling speed of the water column and so he arrived first in front of the spectators as he turned around to face the two water columns. The sword in his hand, already filled with mana, was clad with a super condensed storm.

Every single one of the spectators looked at him, eyes wide open when they noticed that Rio had closed the distance in just a moment. He set his sword and pointed it at the first water column.

「!!!!! ? 」

The beam type bullet of mana which he coated with wind’s spirit arts was fired from the tip of his sword. The beam of mana blew the body and the head of the water to pieces, and shot through it at a speed that couldn’t be followed.

One more to go.

Rio looked up at the other water column and once again clad a compressed storm on his sword blade. He kicked the ground as soon as he landed, jumped high to the sky, getting closer to the falling water column as he used the storm fired from the tip of his sword as a propulsion.

And then, right before colliding with it, Rio grasped his sword with both hands and raised it above his head for an overhead slash. At the same time, he poured even more mana into the blade of his sword, raising the destructive power of the storm to another level, he slashed the water column.

「HAAAAAAAAAA! 」

Clad in a compressed storm, the blade of the sword was elongated. He then brandished it towards the water dragon head right from the front. He increased the density of the compressed storm on his sword blade so that it won’t be destroyed upon the collision with the mass of water. And then, he blew off the mass of water with overwhelming power.

The mass of water transformed into countless water droplets as it scattered around.

「《Big Air Thrust》」()

On the ground, Celia stood in front of Christina and Flora to activate a wind system attack magic towards the countless air droplets in the air. A giant magic square appeared on top of Celia’s hand which was then followed by a powerful gale being fired from it toward the sky. The countless droplets of water were blown to the horizon. When Rio landed on the ground a while later――,

「OOOOH! 」

The spectators were raising their second shouts of joy of the day. On the other hand, Hiroaki was still standing idly in the middle of the drill field.

What a truly tiring day.

Rio was smiling wryly as he looked at Hiroaki. Christina and Celia approached Rio at a trotting pace. Following behind them was Vanessa and Flora.

「My deepest apologies for causing you such a great trouble, Lord Amakawa. 」

Christina said when she arrived at a distance where her voice could reach Rio.

「Likewise, for causing such disturbance. 」

Rio bowed to her in return.

「No, I understand the general situation just by looking at it. 」

Christina said with a regretful expression on her face.

「I’ll hear the details later but, you had a rematch using the power of the demon sword and divine raiment. And here we see the result. 」

「This should be the end of hero-sama’s tantrums right?　It was more or less caused by hero-sama losing control over his own power. 」

「About that, please ask Lord Alfred for more details. 」

Rio replied as he looked at Hiroaki who was standing still in the same position as before and the referee, Alfred.

Hiroaki trembled when he noticed Rio’s gaze on him. Maybe because he knew that he almost caused a great disaster in a moment of carelessness, Hiroaki awkwardly avoided Rio’s line of sight.

「Oh, it seems you at least feel bad about your own mess. 」

Christina said as she heaved a sigh.

「I’ve been a bit too harsh on him in the middle of the first match, and though I agreed to do the 2nd round as long as he agreed to one of my wishes, considering the current situation, may I leave this matter to you, Christina-sama?」

If Hiroaki truly regretted his mess a while ago, he will at least lend his ear to someone.

「……. Thank you very much for your consideration. 」

Christina said as she bowed to Rio.

「It’s nothing, shall we go to hero-sama then. 」

Rio signaled directly with his hand for Christina to go to Hiroaki.

「It’ll be my honor. Please leave the aftermath to me. Vanessa, I suggest you and my other bodyguards guide the spectators to leave this place. Lord Amakawa, Flora, and Celia-sansei, please wait for me here. 」

After she bowed to Rio, she gave the necessary instructions and went toward Hiroaki.

「HA! 」

Vanessa replied promptly and went with her subordinates to lead the spectators away. Leaving only the three of Celia, Flora, and Rio there.

「Haruto, were you hurt in that match?　Are you all right?. 」

Without a moment’s delay, Celia went to check Rio’s body.

「Please tell me immediately if you were injured during the match, I’ll fix it up immediately. 」

Which was followed by Flora who offered her healing magic.

「Thank you very much. But as you can see, I’m uninjured. 」

Rio said with a smile as he moved his body to show his condition. Seeing this, the noble girls and the nobles around were about to go to Rio’s place. But――、

「Everyone, Lord Amakawa is tired. That’s why please return to the castle mansion for now. This is the order from her highness Christina. 」

When Vanessa realized that the spectators were about to swarm Rio, she urged them to leave the drill ground immediately. Those people were only thinking about building a closer relationship with Rio using this momentum anyway, but they could not protest as it was Christina’s order. Thus, the crowd dispersed immediately.

Nevertheless, both marquis Rodan and duke Euguno, the two high ranking nobles who represented Restoration chose to remain and approached Rio.

「Dear me, that was a splendid match, Lord Amakawa. Even if hero-sama is lacking in terms of real combat experience, I believe that you’re several leagues above him. 」

「Yeah, the height of skill of someone who defeated Lord Alfred, I have committed it to memory. I ended up getting riled up like a kid in seeing your battle. It was an extremely splendid match. 」

They praised Rio to no end. It looked as though the two of them were taking a wait-and-see approach in regards to today’s match. To some extent, them choosing this timing to approach Rio showed just how shrewd they were.

「It’s my honor to receive such a high evaluation from you two. 」

Rio said in a humble tone with a smile. A moment later, Christina approached them along with Hiroaki and Alfred, the referee of the match.

「Thank you for waiting, Lord Amakawa. Let’s start with apologies from hero-sama for causing so much trouble for you in today’s matches. May I take some of your time? 」

Christina said as they got closer.

「… Yes, I don’t mind of course. 」

Though he agreed, he was a little bit surprised by the current development. He wondered just what in the world she said to Hiroaki during that brief moment to be able to lead him by the nose. Or, Hiroaki’s regret for his error might be more than what Rio had expected.

「……. -as fault. 」

Hiroaki bowed to Rio while muttering something barely audible. But――、

「Say it again hero-sama, with a louder voice. Please tell him what you want to apologize about. 」

heaving a sigh, Christina warned Hiroaki.

「…. For making you take care of my own mess. I was scolded by Christina that my blunder almost killed so many people. I got carried away and made such a blunder. 」

Hiroaki chewed on his lips with a bitter expression on his face. Rio had no way of knowing whether Hiroaki truly regretted his actions or was merely vexed due to his loss.

「It was nothing, nothing happened in the end after all. 」

Rio decided to give the most appropriate reply for now.

「My deepest apologies. I’m really sorry for this situation but since the current hero-sama is really shaken up by his loss, may I ask you to accept his apology? I still have something to talk with hero-sama after all. 」

Christina took over the situation from there and decided to end the talks right away.

「Yes, naturally. 」

Rio agreed immediately. ――、

「Well then, please rest at your mansion for the time being, I’ll send a messenger to you by tomorrow. I’ll see you off till your mansion. Vanessa, prepare the coach immediately for us. 」

Christina shifted the topic immediately. She might have done this in order to not give the noble duo any opportunities to intervene in the current situation.

「HA!　Please follow me this way, Celia-kun, Lord Amakawa. 」

Vanessa executed Christina’s order immediately by guiding Celia and Rio. Thus, Rio and Celia went back to their mansion for the time being.

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